JPH05126965A - Timepiece indicating daytime zone of earth as seasonal function - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide a watch with which a day area and a night area on the earth are identified at a look. CONSTITUTION: This watch is provided with a central disk 122, on which a projection drawing showing at least a hemisphere of the earth is drawn and which is so driven/connected to a clock movement that an axis makes a turn in 24 hours while passing a pole, and a long wire 128, which is hard is longitudinal direction and can be elastically deformed in transverse direction and constitutes a meridian. The wire is so driven with a control structure as to indicate a boundary of a day area 132 and a night area 134 of the earth.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a timepiece, in particular a case and a timepiece movement, capable of displaying the daytime zone of the earth as a function of the season, and a central drive-driving movement for one revolution in 24 hours. And a disk, the central disk having a projection showing at least a hemisphere of the earth, the axis of rotation of which passes through a pole.

[0002]

2. Description of the Prior Art Clocks with a structure that displays the daytime zone of the Earth as a function of season were already in the 18th century.
Manufactured by a watchmaker called Pater Johannes Klein. Manufactured in plaque in 1738 and also in Dresden at the "State Salon of mathematics".
s and physics)
Called "Astronomical and Geographic Clock". Numerous displays are located on the front and back of it. On the front, with the hour and minute display and date display on the 12-hour dial,
A display section for the time of sunrise and sunset is provided.

On the back surface that is of particular interest to us, there is a dial with a 24-hour scale, two concentric rings with the symbols of the calendar month and the zodiac, and a time ring with the sun symbol. It is provided. The hour ring makes one revolution every 24 hours and rotates with a spherical cap that is centered on the dial and moves around the projecting hemisphere of the earth. Therefore, the cap is as a function of season
Overlays the part of the hemisphere that is not illuminated by the sun.

The control means for the cap comprises an annular disc whose outer circumference forms a cam which cooperates with the free edge of the cap. The cam controls the rotational movement of the cap about a geometric axis that is approximately in the plane of the dial, changing the overlap of the cap on Earth.

However, there are problems with such devices that display the daytime zone of the earth as a function of season. In fact, it is easily understood that such a device provided with a structure comprising the earth, a spherical cap and its control structure requires a considerable thickness. Such a thickness is not always possible, and is not suitable for a small watch such as a pocket watch or a wrist watch. Also, for practical and aesthetic reasons, if one wishes to represent the earth as a plan view projected onto a disk or the like, as described in patent CH-270,584, rather than a sphere, such a structure is Can no longer be used.

[0006] In fact, the above patent comprises a geographical dial on which a projection of the earth around the North Pole is drawn, a 24-hour scale ring and another 12-hour scale ring. All are arranged concentrically with each other. These members are mechanically connected to each other, and to the usual hour and minute hands, so that the 24-hour scale ring corresponds to one hour clockwise relative to the projection of the earth, corresponding to two revolutions of the hour hand. It is designed to rotate. Therefore, in this structure, 1 in 12 hours
The 24-hour scale ring, which rotates in the clockwise direction at the rotating speed, moves with the hour hand, to which the scale ring can be attached. In this way, the hour hand, which represents the legal time at the place where the clock is set, is always pointing to the position on the projection of the earth where the sun is at the zenith. Due to its structure, the hour hand is maintained at the position corresponding to 12 o'clock, that is, noon on the 24-hour scale ring. This noon position at a location is indicated by the sun marking on the hour hand. Therefore, in this structure, the daytime zone of the earth is determined by the straight meridian orthogonal to the hour hand. At the same time, the meridian is not specifically displayed, so the user has to struggle to read the day zone, and it is difficult to take into account the sphere of the earth, so in each case a rough one I only know. Also, since such a straight meridian is fixed to the hour hand, it is not possible to obtain information about changes in the Earth's daytime zone as a function of time. In particular, this structure cannot represent the halves and halves.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, the main object of the present invention is to provide a timepiece including a display mechanism for the daytime zone of the earth, which can be incorporated into a pocket watch, a wristwatch or the like, because it can be easily, accurately and miniaturized. By doing so, the problems of the above conventional device are solved.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a timepiece having a case and a timepiece movement having a dial mounted thereon, the timepiece being hard in the longitudinal direction but elastically deformable in the lateral direction, which is visible from the outside. One elongate member and at least one control structure for deforming the member in at least one direction.

According to an advantageous feature of the invention, the deformation member deforms in a plane parallel to the plane of the dial. For this reason,
According to the first embodiment of the invention, it is possible to control one or several deforming members in a predetermined manner in order to produce a unique decorative or aesthetic effect. According to another advantageous feature of the invention, the deformation of the deformable member is controlled by the timepiece movement.

A timepiece according to a second embodiment of the invention has a central disc drivingly connected to the timepiece movement so as to make one revolution in 24 hours, said central disc being a projection view showing at least a hemisphere of the earth. Is drawn, its axis of rotation passing through a pole, and at least one of the deformable members.
3 shows a meridian, which is driven by the control structure so as to display the boundary between the day zone and the night zone of the earth.

These features provide a device for displaying the daytime zone of the earth in line with the earth shown in a plan view. Furthermore, the device has a member that is deformable as a function of time, so that the progress of the day portion of the earth can be continuously and accurately displayed as a function of season. Further, since the meridian that separates the daytime zone of the earth from the night zone is specifically shown by the deformable member, the information can be read very easily.

According to a special feature of this second embodiment, the member is curved inward so as to face each other, with two end positions respectively representing the winter solstice and summer solstice and an intermediate straight line position representing the halves. Transforms between. According to a third embodiment of the invention in which the control structure is also connected to the timepiece movement, the dial is provided with at least a time scale and at least one deformable member is moved opposite said scale. A display unit for displaying the standard time is provided. Therefore, it is possible to obtain a timepiece capable of displaying a unique time by the display device, that is, the elongated member that is hard in the longitudinal direction but elastically deforms in the lateral direction. Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of some non-limiting examples with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0013]

The following detailed description of the timepiece according to the invention relates mainly to the structure used to display the earth's daytime zone as a function of season. The timepiece 100 of the present invention shown in FIGS. 1 to 5 includes a mechanism for displaying the daytime zone of the earth. The watch shown is the size of a wrist watch that is attached to the wrist with a band 102. It can be made into a pendant watch or a pocket watch while keeping the same size. This watch is provided with a watch case 104 in which a case band 106 closed by a back cover 108 and a front cover 110 is constructed in a known manner. A timepiece mechanism 112 is housed in the timepiece case, the movement itself of which is standard, and a central power take-out portion (gear 46 in FIG. 2) that makes one revolution in 24 hours at the end of the drive chain.
Is provided. From this power take-off, at least the hour display 114 and the minute display 116 are driven via standard mechanisms, but these mechanisms are not shown for clarity of the drawing.

The display units 114 and 116 are, in this example, the front edge 12 of the watch.
Face the dial 118 provided on the 0 and rotate clockwise. This same power take-off drives the central disc 122 which drives it counterclockwise in 24 hours.
Rotate. The disk 122 of this example is depicted with a projection showing at least the northern hemisphere of the earth, and the expression "at least" is used here in each case up to the equator, where the northern hemisphere is indicated by the circle 124. It means that. A 24-hour time scale ring 126 to complete the disc
And the meridian 127 of Greenwich, which points to 12:00. As can be seen in FIG. 1, the axis of rotation of disk 122 passes through the North Pole.

According to an important feature of the invention, the watch is provided with an elongated member 128 exhibiting a meridian line which is rigid in the longitudinal direction but elastically deformable in the lateral direction. This member is arranged above the central disc 122 and is laterally deformed by a control structure 130 (FIGS. 4A, B, C) drivingly connected to the timepiece movement. The control structure will be described in detail below. As is apparent from FIG. 1, the meridian 128 is the boundary that separates the day zone 132 and the night zone 134 of the earth.

The polar sphere 136 is also shown on the central disk 122. The polar region is a global zone that is constantly illuminated by the sun during the summer solstice. This zone is always dark in the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere. In the example of FIG. 1, the top 138 of the member 128 is located at the end position 142a in contact with the polar sphere 136, and represents the summer solstice. The intermediate position 140 and the opposite end position 142b of the member are shown in dotted lines. These represent the dichotomy and winter solstice, respectively.
Furthermore, when reading this display, it is preferable to attach a fixed mark 144 representing the sun so that it is possible to easily distinguish between the sunlit (day) zone and the dark (night) zone on the earth.

In the illustrated embodiment, the deformable member 128 is formed of a hard metal wire. This wire is substantially parallel to the plane of the central disc 122 and is elastically deformable in the lateral direction. Each of the two ends 146, 148 of the deformable member 128 is
It is connected to a movable mounting means 150 which is connected to a control structure 130, which mounting means 150 is rotated about an axis 152 (FIG. 4) extending vertically with respect to the central disc 122 to cause the wire to rotate. Deform laterally. In other words, the curvature can be changed.

An example of a mechanism that can drive the control structure 130 and consequently the movable mounting means 150 will now be described. With particular reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. Figure 2
5 is a schematic diagram of a gear mechanism driving a control structure of a moveable mounting means, the control structure being shown in detail in FIG. FIG. 2 shows a certain number of gears. Each gear has teeth. The gears and their corresponding teeth are shown with the same reference number (eg 8) and centered on the axis (eg axis 09 in the case of gears 8 and 9) indicated by a reference number with a leading zero. Rotate. Also shown in FIG. 2 is a ring 11 with internal teeth. The ring and the teeth attached to it are also designated with the same reference numbers. In this case, the ring 11 is a calendar month ring, which is also marked with the sign of the zodiac, and is driven by the gear wheel 9 supported by the shaft 09.

FIG. 3 shows the shaft 01-07-08-08-010-01 of FIG.
FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional view through 11 showing the drive of the control structure of the moveable mounting means. The gear 1 is fixed to the power take-out portion 46 via the shaft 01, and is rotated counterclockwise by 24.
It makes one revolution in time. Further, a central disk is integrally attached to the shaft 01, and the gear 1 meshes with the gear 2 (shaft 07). A pinion 3 is fixedly attached to the gear 2 on the coaxial 07, and the pinion 3 is attached to the gear 4 (shaft 0).
8) meshes with. A pinion 6 is fixedly attached to the gear 4 on the coaxial shaft 08, and the pinion meshes with the gear 8 (shaft 09). Coaxial 09 has a pinion 9
Is fixedly attached to the gear 8 (shaft 09), and this pinion meshes with the calendar month ring 11 and the gear 25 (shaft 010). A pinion 26 is integrally attached to the gear 25 on the shaft 010, and this pinion is a gear 27 (shaft 011).
Is meshing with.

The speed applied to the gear 27 is of the order of one revolution in about 365 days. More precisely, the gear ratio obtained by the following equation starting from the gear 1 (shaft 01) connected to the central disc 122 is selected, the numbers in parentheses being the reference numbers of the respective gears, The previous number is the number of teeth on that gear.

(1) {17 (1) ・ 15 (3) ・ 25 (6) ・ 9 (9) ・ 12 (26)} / {41 (2) ・ 57 (4) ・ 61 (8) ・ 36 (25) ・ 49 (27)} = 1 / 365.24408

The speed given to the calendar month ring 11 is also about 36
The gear ratio is chosen which is on the order of one revolution in 5 days and is given by the following equation: (2) {17 (1) ・ 15 (3) ・ 25 (6) ・ 9 (9)} / {41 (2) ・ 57 (4) ・ 61 (8) ・ 147 (11)} = 1 / 365.24408 A crank-shaped finger 154 is attached to the gear 27. This finger extends perpendicularly to the plane of the gear 27 and fits in a guide groove 156 in the carriage 158 (described in more detail with reference to FIG. 4), the central disc 12
The carriage is moved in translation above a support plate 160 provided between 2 and a base plate 161 supporting the gear.

As can be seen, in the illustrated embodiment, the movable carriage 158 includes a control structure 13 for the movable mounting means 150.
Make up 0. The movable carriage 158 is formed in a substantially rectangular plate shape, and its long side has a first symmetry axis X-.
It is parallel to X ′ and the short side is parallel to the second axis of symmetry YY ′. At the center of the carriage is provided a circular opening 162 for passing the pipe 163 (FIG. 3) of the gear 1 (shaft 01) that supports the central disc 122.
Indicates only the equator circle 124 and the polar sphere 136 by a chain line. Furthermore, the carriage has an axis Y- near the circular opening.
Guide grooves 156 are provided that extend in a direction parallel to Y ′ and symmetrically on both sides of the axis XX ′.

Further, two protrusions 164 are provided in the central portion of the long side of the carriage in a direction parallel to the axis YY '. These two protrusions have teeth that form a rack.
166 is attached. Each rack is in direct mesh with the movable mounting means 150 via a toothed sector 168. The carriage thus formed has an axis X
It moves in the direction parallel to −X ′ and translates while being guided by the guide fingers 170 fitted in the support plate 160. Each movable mounting means is rotatably mounted about a fixed pivot 152 which fits into and extends perpendicularly to the support plate. The fixed line connecting the axes of rotation of these pivots is parallel to the axis YY 'and will be referred to as axis ZZ' in the following description.

Next, the structure of the mounting means will be described with reference to FIG. 5 which is a sectional view taken along the line VV of FIG. Each movable attachment means has a member formed in an "L shape". This member has a first branch portion 1 rotatably mounted about a pivot 152 and provided at its free end with a toothed sector 168 which meshes with a rack 166.
72 and a second branch portion 174 extending perpendicularly to the plane of the support plate and projecting above the central disc 122. The second branch portion 174 has attachment means for the free end of the wire 128. That is, the free ends 146, 148 of the wire are clamped and tightly clamped between the two jaws 176, 178 provided at the ends of the second branch portion 174. The length of the wire 128 is determined so that when the two first branch portions are aligned along the axis ZZ ', they are in alignment.

Next, the operation of the mechanism for displaying the daytime zone of the earth by the wire will be described with reference to FIG.
In the following description of the operation, it is assumed that the sun is always located in the upper part of the drawing as in the conventional case. First, in A, it can be seen that the two first branch portions 172 of the movable attachment means 150 are aligned and the axis YY 'and the axis ZZ' coincide. Further, the carriage control crank 154 whose center of rotation lies on the axis XX ′ is at the right end of the guide groove in the drawing. Therefore, the wire becomes straight and represents the equinox. Since the sun is above the wire, the sunshine circle passes through the poles, so the whole earth enters the sunshine circle, and the night and day lengths are the same. The position of the crank when the wire 128 represents autumn equinox is also indicated by a dotted line. It will be seen that the wire is in the same straight line, but the crank is rotated 180 ° clockwise and is located at the left end of the guide groove 156.

Next, at B, the control crank 154 is rotated 90 ° in the direction of arrow RC, and as a result, the carriage is translated in the direction of arrow D. Translation of the carriage causes the attachment means to rotate about the pivot so that the wire is arcuate. Since the crank is located on the axis XX ', it is at one end of it, so the wire has a maximum radius of curvature corresponding to the summer solstice indication.
At this time, the sun is located on the concave side of the wire. In the case of this shape, the top of the arc of the wire is in contact with the polar sphere 136.

Finally, in C, the crank has rotated 90 ° clockwise from the position shown in B and is located at the opposite end. The carriage and the attachment means are moving in opposite directions, and the radius of curvature of the wire at this time corresponds to the display of the winter solstice. Therefore, the sun is located on the convex side of the wire. In addition, while the wire is moving from one end to the other, the wire is placed at the position indicated by I.
It is interesting to note that there are two invariants and, according to an important feature of this embodiment of the invention, these two points lie approximately on the equator.

The wire deformation rate is set to take the same end position about every 365 days. To achieve this, the ratio of the radius rk of the travel path of the crank to the radius rt of the arc of the toothed sector is chosen according to the following equation:

Rk / rt = 2π · 50.79449 ° / 360 ° where 50.79449 ° is half the clearance angle of the toothed sector measured from the axis ZZ ′.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along the line VV of FIG.
Shows in detail how the above-mentioned members are arranged with respect to the case of the timepiece. It can be seen that the hour display 114 and the minute display 116 are supported on rings 115, 117 driven by internal teeth by means of suitable gears (not shown). Furthermore, the minute and hour ring is guided by a jewel mechanism 179 with several stones and a flange provided on the base plate to cooperate with the inside of the ring.

All of the above description is based on the central disk 122 drawing a projection showing the northern hemisphere of the earth. Those skilled in the art will readily understand that if one wishes to represent the day portion of the southern hemisphere of the earth, all gear sets need to be reversed except for the hour and minute indicators. Furthermore, although the invention has been described with reference to a linear projection of the northern hemisphere of the earth, it will be appreciated that the invention is applicable to other types of projections, for example stereo projections. In that case, the drive of the control structure 130 is modified appropriately.

The invention is not limited to the embodiment described above, but as in the variant shown in FIG.
8 can be used as a substitute for the time display. In this case, the fixed dial 180 above the movement
A graduation 182 is marked on the wire, and the wire has a display section that moves facing the graduation. Thus, when the control structure 130 for deforming the wire is connected to the timepiece movement in a suitable manner, a unique indication of standard time is obtained.

[0034]

As described above, according to the present invention, the day zone and the night zone can be distinguished at a glance. Further, since the elongated member is deformed according to the season so as to distinguish the day zone and the night zone, it is possible to visually recognize the change of the day zone for each season.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 is a top view of an embodiment of a timepiece according to the invention having a device for displaying the daytime zone of the earth.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the gear mechanism driving the control structure for the deformable member, as seen from the dial side, excluding the central disc.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view through the shaft 01-07-08-08-09-01011 of FIG. 2 showing the drive of the control structure for the deformable member.

FIG. 4 is a top view of the control structure for the deformable members in the intermediate position and the two end positions, respectively.

5 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line VV of FIG.

FIG. 6 is a top view of another embodiment of a timepiece according to the present invention, showing a standard time in a linear representation.

[Explanation of symbols]

 112 Clock movement 122 Central disk 128 Elongated wire 130 Control structure

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. At least one elongated member which has a watch case and a watch movement having a dial mounted thereon and which is rigid in the longitudinal direction but elastically deformable in the lateral direction, and which is visible from the outside, and the member. And at least one control structure for deforming the watch in at least one direction.